Most of us remember what a financial recession feels like. The 2008 crisis hit millennials especially hard. Job markets tightened, home values dropped, and recovery felt slow and uneven. But, recessions DO end eventually. And there are many lessons to be learned and remembered by those who get through them.

It’s no wonder millennial parents had a gut reaction to the new name for a decline in student reading scores observed since 2013: “recession.” That’s exactly what educational researchers from Harvard, Stanford, and Dartmouth just called the decline in their 2026 Education Scorecard. Their findings have been making headlines nationwide this week.

As one Harvard professor involved in the project, Tom Kane, explained to Chalkbeat: "The U.S. has been in a learning recession since at least around 2013 and that's especially true in reading.” Other sources tracking long-term trends, such as the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), confirm his assertion that scores were already falling before the pandemic. Of course, the pandemic made things much worse, acting like "the mudslide that followed seven years of erosion," Kane said.

According to the Hechinger Report, students nationally remain nearly half a grade level behind pre-pandemic reading scores. Only five states plus Washington D.C. showed meaningful reading growth from 2022 to 2025. Yet this is still a hopeful sign. As with a financial recession, early signs of recovery often mean we’re finally coming out of it. Thanks to new emphasis on reading education and clear Science of Reading mandates, this could be the beginning of scores inching up again.

The kids who will come out of the reading recession strongest are the ones whose parents aren’t relying solely on school for help. They’re taking matters into their own hands, while waiting for our educational system to catch back up. In today's issue, we explore how you can make intentional moves now, during the downturn, in each stage of your child’s reading development.

TL;DR: America's “reading recession” started in 2013 and has touched almost every state and every age group. But new research also shows early signs of a recovery. While the system is still getting back on track, parents can take steps to support their child’s reading development now.

In today’s issue:

• The one thing every recovering state did differently

• How far behind are today's 4th and 5th graders?

• Why older students are hit hardest — and most invisibly

The Best Time to Invest

The reading recession hits the youngest students differently than older ones. For them, reading skills aren’t declining. They’re still being built for the first time. And the recession is making the whole process much harder.

Fortunately, we have some clues about recovery from the handful of states where a turnaround is most visible. They all have something in common: they’ve fully embraced the Science of Reading, explicit phonics instruction, and a complete picture of foundational literacy skills. As Language Magazine reports, Science of Reading reforms have now reached at least 40 states and a third of the nation's K-3 teachers. Where those reforms have taken hold, results are already showing.

AP reporting from first grade classrooms in Detroit also showed the importance of promoting student engagement in learning to read. From emphasizing small group instruction, to deepening the connections kids make to texts, to simply enforcing consistent attendance, kids learn best when they are more involved. "It allows us to be better educators to see kids consistently in the seat instead of once or twice a week," said first grade teacher Samantha Ciaffone. "It makes such a difference."

Parents should take heart, knowing that districts are making big changes to improve reading scores and engagement. But they also can’t afford to wait for results. As every parent knows, those precious years go by much too fast. Getting extracurricular reading support from a tutor or enrolling in a Summer Reading Program can ensure your child has the strongest reading foundation possible.

The Cost of Waiting

Of all the data points in the Education Scorecard, the findings for 4th and 5th graders may be the most sobering. 4th grade reading scores have fallen to pre-2003 levels. As TIME reported, students today are 60% of one school year behind in reading compared to their peers a decade ago. That's not a pandemic blip.

What makes this especially consequential is the timing. Late elementary is exactly when reading stops being its own subject and becomes the tool students use to learn everything else — science, social studies, history, and more. How can we expect a child almost a whole school year behind to succeed in grade-level texts at all, let alone across subjects?

The Education Scorecard also surfaced a finding that will surprise many families. Recovery from the reading recession has been “U-shaped.” The highest-poverty and highest-income school districts have seen the most improvement. Middle-income districts have seen the least. So, if your child's school isn't in a high-need district that received significant pandemic relief, and isn't in a wealthy district with abundant resources, your child may quietly be falling even further behind.

Skill gaps respond especially well to intentional instruction over the summer, when kids don’t have the burden of normal schoolwork. Focus on comprehension and nonfiction skills in particular can build kids’ confidence and motivation before they head into their next grade. That’s why we target these precise skills in our Summer Reading Programs for late elementary schoolers.

The Longest Recovery

For middle and high school students, the reading recession isn't an abstraction. A 2026 high school senior would have been heading to kindergarten back in 2013 when the recession began. This is the academic environment they've been navigating their entire school lives. And no corner of the country has been untouched. In fact, Harvard's Center for Education Policy Research found that 83% of all American school districts have lower reading scores now than a decade ago.

What brings this age group's dire situation into even sharper focus is what their own teachers are reporting. According to EdSurge, more than half of educators surveyed said at least a quarter of their middle and high school students had difficulty with basic reading skills. More than 20 percent said that half to three-quarters of their students struggle. These are teachers sounding the alarm about young people sitting right in front of them — and most parents have no idea the numbers are this stark.

The Science of Reading reforms driving recovery in the leading states have largely focused on elementary instruction. Older students are too often left out of that conversation, meaning their recovery depends even more on what happens outside of school. Summer is one of the few windows where a middle or high schooler can make real reading gains without the pressure of grades and deadlines. A structured Summer Reading Program makes it as easy and productive as possible.

As Harvard professor Tom Kane puts it: "The recovery of U.S. education has begun. But it's up to the rest of us to spread it."